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by Susan Smith - Managing EditorEach GIS Weekly Review delivers to its readers news concerning the latest developments in the GIS industry, GIS product and company news, featured downloads, customer wins, and coming events, along with a selection of other articles that we feel you might find interesting. Brought to you by GISCafe.com. If we miss a story or subject that you feel deserves to be included, or you just want to suggest a future topic, please contact us! Questions? Feedback? Click here. Thank you!

Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances

NAVIGON, innovator in the navigation market, announced a partnership with

Rand McNally, the premier resource for travel planning, to supply Scenic Routes and City Guides for NAVIGON's line of personal navigation devices (PNDs). Adding to its array of unique features, NAVIGON is the first company in the GPS industry to partner with Rand McNally to provide this valuable information to consumers.

XeDAR Corporation, provides homeland security and defense consulting and IT management-and-security services to the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense and others; national intelligence agencies; and the U.S. Military. It announced a strategic agreement with

IDV Solutions of Lansing, MI, with the goal of building a software solution specifically for the U.S. Defense and Intelligence communities and the energy development & land management markets.

GeoEye, Inc., a premier provider of satellite and aerial imagery and geospatial information, announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with the

National University of Singapore to allow the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP) to collect and sell Earth imagery and related products from its GeoEye-1 satellite. Later this year, CRISP will move into their new state-of-the-art research center which will continue to support CRISP's existing IKONOS satellite imaging operations. The new facility will be upgraded to accommodate direct access to the GeoEye-1 data.

IDV Solutions announced their technology integration with Eternix, an Israel-based software company providing high-performance visualization solutions. Through this partnership, Eternix will integrate IDV Solutions’ Visual Fusion software with their Blaze View software to offer advanced geospatial visualization solutions for the Defense and Intelligence community. Eternix will unveil the integrated solution at the upcoming DGI 2009 conference in London on January 19th.

Announcements

The

Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) has asked Congress to establish subcommittees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate with jurisdiction over Federal geospatial activities. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), COGO Chairman Cy Smith urged that oversight of geospatial technology be specifically included in the mission of existing Congressional subcommittees.

In Valencia, Spain, at the December Technical Committee meetings of the

Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), the

OGC and the

Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to coordinate in advancing open geospatial standards (OGC’s mission) and open source geospatial software and data (OSGeo’s mission).

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated announced that its subsidiary, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, LLC has played a key role in helping NASA begin a new era in planetary exploration, when the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) commenced operation in November. The M3 is one of 11 instruments on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India’s first mission to the moon.

The enabling technology that makes the M3 possible is a new type of combined visible-infrared image array developed by the Teledyne Imaging Sensors group at TS&I. The sensor array is produced using a mixture of three elements – mercury, cadmium and tellurium – to grow crystals that are very sensitive to light.

URISA is seeking nominations for its GIS Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes and honors the best of us in GIS. Started in 2005, the URISA Hall of Fame documents the contributions made by key individuals. URISA welcomes nominations from any profession and is not restricted to those having a past or current relationship with URISA. This award is not given every year, and some years there may be multiple recipients. The selection criteria for this honor are:

Nominations must be submitted to URISA by May 1. For details and to learn more about current Hall of Famers, go to

With a focus on promoting spatial literacy among students in all disciplines, Dr. Michael Gould joins

ESRI as director of higher education. He will also concentrate on supporting the implementation of geographic information system (GIS) technology across academic and administrative departments.

ITT Corporation announced that Edward M. Morris has joined ITT Space Systems Division as executive director of strategic business development. He will be responsible for strategic program and business development of GPS navigation systems and additional space-related capabilities, focusing on establishing client relationships and opportunities in response to emerging customer requirements.

New Products

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. , a global leader in satellite navigation, announced that it would offer

nüMaps Lifetime, a single fee program that enables customers to download the latest map and point of interest information every quarter for the life of their personal navigation device (PND). The nüMaps Lifetime program was announced in conjunction with the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and will be on display at the Garmin booth (South Hall 4, #35832).

Smart Data Strategies, Inc. (SDS), a leading provider of GIS software and services, announced the availability of DREAMaps Mapper 10.0 . Developed as an extension to ESRI’s ArcEditor and ArcInfo 9.3, DREAMaps Mapper 10.0 further increases productivity and efficiency for parcel creation, editing, maintenance and related tasks.

Originally developed in 1997, DREAMaps Mapper was as one of the first parcel editing extensions to ArcInfo. DREAMaps Mapper has been continually upgraded and enhanced based on feedback from hundreds of users. For instance, DREAMaps Mapper now includes a Transaction Manager for increased compatibility with leading DBMS and other systems. This allows for tighter integration with systems such as CAMA, which eliminates duplicate data entry and orphan parcel creation resulting in fewer errors and faster performance.

Safe Software, the leaders in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), announced the release of FME 2009 – the only complete spatial data conversion and distribution solution available in the market today. This new version, which includes new releases of FME Desktop and FME Server, has been enhanced to make it even easier for the geospatial industry to access the spatial data they need to use.

QCoherent Software, provider of Limitless LiDARTM software tools, is pleased to announce the release of its free LiDAR viewer, LP Viewer. LP Viewer is able to load and visualize copious amounts of LiDAR data in the industry standardized LAS 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 formats. Requiring a Windows operating system and a minimal hardware configuration, LP Viewer provides fast on-the-fly tinning, contouring, 3D, profile visualizations, and ease of operation for which QCoherent Software has become known. LP Viewer is installed with a Free LP360 Evaluation. The LP360 evaluation (including LP Viewer) can be downloaded from QCoherent Software's web page:

Luciad, software provider for distribution and high performance visualization of geospatial information, will be presenting its new LuciadEarth technology at the DGI 2009 Conference to be held on January 19-22 in London. LuciadEarth is the most advanced virtual Earth solution available to the world of mission-critical Command and Control.

Azteca Systems has released Cityworks Server MMS from Azteca Systems, Inc., the provider of GIS-centric management solutions. Azteca announced the first web-based asset maintenance management system built exclusively on ESRI’s ArcGIS Server and designed to compliment Cityworks Desktop and Anywhere products. Cityworks Server MMS offers state-of-the-art technology and provides agencies an advanced and efficient way to enable staff throughout the enterprise.

NavDog.com launches a new map search technology that uses intelligence to refine content and search results in real time. This newly developed technology has also shown great promise in many non-mapping-related applications and has powerful capabilities that are sought-after by online advertisers.

Around the Web

Best of CES AwardsCNET News.com - Since 2006, CNET has presented the Best of CES Awards, given to the top product in 10 categories as well as one coveted Best in Show award. See the gadgets that topped out list for this year, and find out the People's Voice winner, decided by more than 10,000 member votes.